This blog consists of PhotoFeature Stories on artists of all genres, human interest stories, guest blog posts, book reviews, and book excerpts.
CHRIS RICE COOPER is a newspaper writer, feature stories writer, poet, fiction writer, photographer, and painter.
She has a Bachelor's in Criminal Justice and is close to completing her Master's in Creative Writing.
She, her husband Wayne, sons Nicholas and Caleb, cats Nation and Alaska reside in the St. Louis area.

The
Ram begins his reign on February 19, 2015 until February 7, 2016 at which time
the cunning Monkey will actively take over.

Every
year is assigned an animal in a 12-year cycle. The Chinese believe that those
born during those years take on the likeliness of animals that rule the year of
their birth just as modern Astrologists believe people born under a certain
sign of the Western Zodiac have similar traits.

Let’s
take a look at the characteristics of those born in the Year of Ram, 1907,1919,1931,1943,1955,1967,1979,1991, 2003 and
2015. It is in 8th position
of the Chinese Zodiac and is considered the most feminine sign so those born
during these years are known to be gentle, righteous, sincere, and can be
easily fooled.Although shy, they can be
fashionable, creative and artistic. But at his worst, he can be stubborn,
pessimistic and even withdrawn.

Regardless
of which animal rules each year, most Chinese Americans look forward to Spring
Festival or Guo Nien because it’s the biggest party of all, like all the
birthdays and holidays combined into one. Since the New Year celebration runs
for two weeks, we start off with eating the usual traditional Chinese dishes
symbolic of this particular time.

The
most popular Chinese New Year’s dish is meatless and is still consumed today
and consists only of vegetables.This delicious
recipe originated from the Buddhist Monks who went begging for food and received
only meager portions of vegetables.However, being inventive cooks, they created what is known as Monk’s
food or Jai.

During
this period, parents, grandparents, friends and family will be honored with
many gifts such as lai-see, oranges, candy, nuts and pastry.It’s the time to promote benevolence,
reunions, family unity, remembrances, and people will pay homage to their
deceased ancestors.

Candied
preserved fruits and vegetables also signify something – melon seeds mean many
children, carrots resemble coins so they symbolize golden wealth. The long
vines of squash and melon plants mean a long line of descendants; lotus seeds
signify productions of sons; kumquats are for good luck and coconuts are hopes
for a strong relationship between father and son.

While
many will be enjoying special foods, events and festivities, much can be remembered
and learned from the past.

Many
momentous events took place during the Ram Years.

On a
positive note,did you know that in a
landmark 1919 decision, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes enunciated
the limits of the First Amendment’s protection of free speech: when it
represented a “clear and present danger that (it) will bring about the
substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.”

It
was in 1931, West Virginian Pearl S. Buck, raised in China by missionary
parents, was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize for her book, “The
Good Earth.” It was published from the
King James version of the Bible and from Chinese sagas she enjoyed in her
youth.

In 1943 after George Nicholas Papanicolaou
discovered the growth of cancerous cells in a vaginal smear and published his
paper, “Diagnosis of Uterine Cancer by the Vaginal Smear,” he convinced the
American medical establishment of the effectiveness of his diagnostic test, the
Pap Smear.”

In 1955,
the AFL-CIO, an organization labor superpower came into being when the American
Federation of labor merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

In
1967, the National Football league easily won its first showdown with its
rival, the American Football league.Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers whipped the Kansas City Chiefs 35 –
10 to take the World Championship (which became known as the Super Bowl in 1969.)

In
1967, things must have been bad since Joseph Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana
Alliluyeva, defected to the United States in April.

In
May, 1979, everything changed in Great Britain. Labor was out and the Conservatives were in –
the voters had spoken with 44% of the vote and 43 seat majority in Parliament. Margaret Thatcher, the first European woman
ever to hold the country’s highest elected office replaced James Callaghan.

In
1991 Zhang Yimou completed what is probably the best movie to come out of China
since the revolution, Raise the Red Lantern
– the second Chinese film ever nominated for the Academy award for best foreign
film.The beautiful Gong Li starred as
the fourth wife of an arrogant, wealthy patriarch.

In
December, 2003 former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his hometown
of Tikrit.

In
the United States, 1919 was considered the Red year because of the race riots
and a “red scare” that led to the deportation of thousand of alleged
subversives.

In
the spring of 1931, when the Credit Anstalt in Austria, the nation’s biggest
bank failed, and the Danat-bank in Germany collapses, Berliners rushed to
withdraw their funds.

And
also that year, the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto of 500,000 inhabitants mounted a
hopeless revolt but they were captured.

In
1955, violence returned to Indochina as the rulers of the supposedly temporary
state of North and South Vietnam consolidated their own power.

In
1967, China gets the H bomb in June and detonated a hydrogen bomb and causes
fear in both America and Moscow that a nuclear showdown was imminent.

In
1979, tragically, one of Britain’s last great warhero, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, didn’t die
in battle but was slain while vacationing in his country home on the west coast
of Ireland.The Irish Republican Army blew
up his boat killing Mountbatten, his grandson and his grandson’s friend as they
fished on Donegal Bay.

It
was in 1991, plagued by armed insurgency and massive foreign debt, Peru was
struck in January by a Cholera epidemic, the highly contagious bacterial
disease caused by feces polluted waters.This deadly epidemic killed thousands of Peruvians in a matter of
months.

In
2003, how many of us will ever forget the space shuttle Columbia when it
disintegrated as it attempted to reenter Earth’s atmosphere.All seven crew members were lost.

After
such an active and energetic Year of the Horse, this is the year to sit back,
relax, make peace with yourself as well as others and take another look at
those close to us, our family and friends.

Take
the time to be creative, enjoy life, travel and be productive and imaginative
in artistic and aesthetic ventures.

On
the world scene, things will be calm and harmonious.Just keep a tight hand on your purse string
too, as there could be repercussions by overspending or investing.

Hopefully
the Ram will have some control this year by the serenity of his peaceful ways
and love of harmony and slow thing down a bit.

Photograph
Description And Copyright Information

Photo
1

Valerie
Lee

Copyright
granted by Valerie Lee

Photo
2

Jacket
cover of Jade Rubies

Photo
3

Jacket
cover of A Long Way to Death Row

Photo
4

Rram/goat
image 2015

Fair
Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo
5

Chinese
Zodiac

Attributed
to Spring

Fair
Use Under The United States Copyright Law

Photo
6

The
carvings with Chinese Zodiac on the ceiling of the gate to Kushiaa Shrine in
Fukuoka

Mirror
iamge to have animals in correct order

Attributed
to Jakub Halun

GNU
Free Documentaiton License Version 1.2

Photo
7

Valerie
Lee

Copyright
granted by Valerie Lee

Photo
8

Lunar
New Year Celebration in Chinatown New York City

February
13, 2005

Attributed
to Patrick Kwan

CCA
3.0 Generic

Photo
9

Image
of Pureland Buddhist Monk collecting food.

Wikispaces

Photo
10

Playing
Children

1150
A.D.

Attributed
to Su Harchen

Public
Domain

Photo
11

Ancestors Gallery

19th
Century Painting

Tempera
paint on canvas

Anonymous

Public
Domain

Photo
12

Coconut
Fortune Cookies

Attributed
to Fancy Fortune Cookies

CCASA
3.0 unported

Photo
13

Oliver
Wendell Holmes in 1902 the year he was appointed to the Supreme Court.

Public
Domain

Photo
14

Pearl
S Buck in 1932

Library
of Congress

Public
Domain

Photo
15

1st
edition Jacket cover of The Good Earth

Photo
16

George
Nicholas Papanicolaou 1883-1962

Public
Domain

Photo
17

Pap
Test Abnormal

October
2006

Attributed
to Alex Brollo

GNU
FDLIC Vers 1.2

Photo
18

The
AFL-CIO Building in Washington DC

June
20, 2010

Attributed
to Agnostic Preacher’s Kid

CCASA
3.0 Unported.

Photo
19

1967
World Championship between Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs.

Fair
Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo
20

Joseph
Stalin with daughter Svetlana

1935

Public
Domain

Photo 21

Svetlana
Alliluyeva in New York City in 1967

Photo
22

Margaret
Thatcher

Attributed
to Chris Collins of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation

CCASA
3.0

Photo
23

Zhang
Yimou

Hawaii
International Film Festival in 2005

Attributed
to Alejandro Barneenas

Fair
Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo
24

DVD
jacket cover of Raise The Red Lantern

Photo
25

Gory
Li

Cannes
Film Festival in 2011

Attributed
to Georges Biard

CCASA
3.0 Unported.

Photo
26

The
capture of Saddam Hussein in December 13, 2003

Public
Domain

Photo
27

Political
cartoon attributed to New York Evening Telegram

Attributed
to Sydney Joseph Green

Public
Domain

Photo
28

The
CreditAnstalt in Austria in 1931

Photo
29

Image
of the destruction block taken at the agnel from the Intersection of Zamerhofa
and Wolynska Streets in the Warsaw Ghetto

Photograph Description And Copyright InformationPhoto 1Portrait of a mother and daughter reading a bookAttributed to Edwin Harris (1855-1906)painting made in 1903Photo 2Bradford Pear TreeFair USe Under the United States Copyright LawPhoto 3Boy holding foreign coins on a mapModeled by Nicholas CooperCopyright by Christal Rice CooperPhoto 4Photoshopped images of yellow scarf and skyPhoto 5Photoshopped image of NASA photo attributed and photo of 9 year old boyModeled by Caleb CooperCopyright by Christal Rice CooperPhoto 6Ship Running Around In A StarmOil Painting on CanvasAttributed to Ludolf Backhuysen (12/28/1630 to 11/17/1708)Public DomainPhoto 7Blazing Horse wall paperFree DownloadFair Use Under the United States Copyright Law Photo 8Florentine DiamondPublic DomainPhoto 9"April Showers" film clip from "Bambi"Fair Use Under the United States Copyright LawPhoto 10 Scenes from Moby Dick, also applicable to Jonah and the Big Fish that swallowed him.Fair Use Under the United States Copyright LawPhoto 11Elsa's Ice Castle From Walt Disney's "Frozen"Fair Use Under the United States Copyright lawPhoto 12Whistle JacketHorse painting in the Romanticism Style 1761Attributed to George Stubbs (8/25/1724 to 7/10/1806)Photo 13 Jacket cover of "Mountains of Spices"Photo 14Glowing lava flow on the coastal plain of Kilauea in Hawaii United States1986United Stages Geological Serv.Public DomainPhoto 15Northern LightsPublic DomainPhoto 16Gray SunsetFair Use Under the United States Copyright LawPhoto 17Horse leaping into the MoonAttributed to Christina Lewis, of Lightning ArtCopyright granted by Christina Lewis.Photo 18Snow womanAttribution unknownPublic DomainPhoto 19Snow on the mountains of Southern CaliforniaAttribution unknownCC BY 3.0Photo 20Woman following the rainbow back homeModeled by Regina HughesCopyright by Christal Rice Cooper and Regina HughesPhoto 21Photoshopped image of painting of train station and woman with rainbow umbrellaModeled by Regina HughesCopyright by Christal Rice Cooper and Regina HughesPhoto 22Dining room table set for fourFair Use Under the United States Copyright LawPhoto 23Little boy readingModeled by Caleb CooperCopyright by Christal Rice CooperPhoto 24Little boy in the Marshmallow TreeModeled by Caleb CooperCopyright by Christal Rice Cooper